Creating an IS Department?

brainee28 asks: "I work in the IS department for a manufacturer in Arizona (a one-man-show). I do mostly everything; from systems, to networks, to procurement, to implementation. I can't mention who I work for since we deal with government contracts. My problem is this: The company didn't start out with an IS department. Up until 6 years ago, a few computers were scattered around, but processes and business was still being done the old-fashioned way (with paper). When the IS department was started, it was started by a hobbyist (he was named IS Manager before I showed up), who knew nothing about management or any of the major issues that befall a traditional IS dept. I joined 6 years ago (I have 5 years of IS Management experience, and 15 years of experience with IS in general) with the idea that I would be managing day-to-day operations. That has still not come to pass. The hobbyist left the company 4 years ago, and I've been on my own ever since." What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change? "Management views IS as a facilities function; computers are a tool, and only a tool. I presented a proposal to them about 2 weeks ago which completely negates that and several other ideas they've had about IS. Management accepted the proposal; however I'm now faced with additional mountains to climb.

I have 3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:

1) The main job of IS is connectivity. Connectivity is the core of why we have IS. Anything else is extraneous, and I shouldn't be dealing with it.

2) IS involvement in other divisions isn't necessary. IS is involved with other divisions when physical products get connected to the network, but not before. Software should be evaluated by IS only when it becomes necessary for purchase and implementation, not before. Any developed piece of software (we have an in-house programmer in accounting who uses Access -- I know, I know...) should be evaluated by IS when the software is ready to install.

3)I'm too overloaded. With 93 permanent users and 110 workstations (some are floaters), I can't do both systems work and admin work (my title is Systems Administrator, but I carry no management authority) on my own. My proposal stated the need for the creation of staff (a tech and a clerk). Management thinks because things are running, I have no issues, but I'm falling apart from all I have to do to keep things running. I need to offset the load so I can do more of the 'bigger picture' things to help guide this company out of the IS dark ages. (We have no CTO or CIO; Management is made up of engineers from different disciplines)

How would Slashdot users attack this? I've done my Google searches; went back to traditional books from Barnes and Noble; and even contacted my alma mater, Northern Arizona University, to find some answers. How would you prove the need for change on these three points? Can I institute change here?"

Comments

Ignore all technical details

[endrue]

Remeber that upper management generally hates technical details. Explain how the widespread changes will benefit the company in relation to things that you know are important to them. Make sure that you underline the importance of the changes and the specifice benefits they entail; things like money saved, less training, less downtime, and less support calls.

show initiative

[boxlight]

What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?

In a nutshell, just do it.

Take the initiative and start implementing policies and enforcing them. My guess is your boss will be very impressed that you're showing such leadership. Team Captains don't become Team Captains by waiting to be asked.

Keep in mind, that you run the risk of pissing a lot of people off. Be flexible (you probably don't have *all* the answers) but stay determined. Perseverance pays.

Just do it. They'll tell you when you've gone too far.

Boxlight

Re:Me Oh My

[moorley]

Well said... But...

He's been there for years and they haven't listened to him.

By what miracles of miracles are they going to start listening to him now?

I've been outsourced. I was the last one there and turned off the lights as we left. It wasn't because we were incompetent it's because they had already made the decision many months ago to send it to another geographic region. We were already the contractors running 12 hour shifts. The moral of this story is to look at the big picture and make your best decision.

I resemble your remark. I'm not incompetent. But my 20/20 hindsight tells me that after 6 months to a year if I haven't gotten what I wanted even though I outperformed every expectation and made the case for improvement you leave. Yes there are things you can do better but the time has already passed. We don't live for miracles, that's why we need to make good decisions.

He needs to make decisions for himself, not the company he works for.

Re:Chances are...

[kimvette]

er, one can infer directly from the context what the author is referring to.

And for what it's worth connectivity is not the primary function of IS. Providing and supporting the infrastructure for company data, processes, and infrastructure and making it as transparent (that is, problem free) for the users is what "IS" departments are for.

I've gone into companies and improved security (brought them beyond HIPAA compliance - they're behind two firewalls), reliability, etc. and now we hear from most of them very little. One customer we hadn't heard for in four months contacted us a couple of weeks ago. I had been wondering if there was a problem (e.g., they thought IT services were too costly) but when they called they had a laundry list of items, mostly concerning computers we didn't provide (mainly problems with Dell systems, which on the low end have a HORRENDOUS failure rate). When he called he said "I know you haven't heard from us in a while but to tell you the truth things have been running GREAT." It was satisfying to know that a nontechnical manager at a client understands the value of IT and that it is when you don't even think about your network that things have been done right.

Incidentally that was one of my clients where we deployed Open Office (saved $400 to $500 per seat on software there), Firefox, and other free/OSS solutions. Users (secretary/receptionist types) took to OOo immediately and discovered functioality that I didn't even know was in OOo, which underscores just how well OOo stacks up against M$ Office for typical office use. Sure, if they were working with 1200+ row formatted/hyperlinked spreadsheets they would not be able to use OOo due to severe performance issues, but they'll never encounter that there.

They have gone from continual downtime between spyware and a lousy (and insecure) network setup and flaky hardware to never even thinking about the computers. Their only remaining problem is they're still on Verizon DSL so they experience bandwidth issues when lots of terminal service users are logged in, but that's unavoidable until they bite the bullet and go with a T1 line, since Verizon STILL doesn't offer sDSL here. They had one minor incident where one individual who had the admin password was canned and they didn't change the admin password or let me know, and that user was a little spiteful and changed the admin password. That was quickly addressed (thanks to UBCD) and now I've created a secondary admin account just in case another manager has the same idea. Aside from that they have had no real problems.

My point?

Express your goals:
- minimized downtime
- data integrity - redundancy, automated backups, etc.
- solid disaster recovery plans (minimize downtime in event of a failure)
- facilitate better communication and data exchange
- Make your IT infrastructure transparent. By transparent, I mean so problem-free that the users don't even have to think about you.

Remind them that a single day's worth of downtime for a business of that size costs more than it will cost to implement a proper network and process up front. I've seen a 130+ employee company (a software company) lose exchange due to HDD crashes (the acting IT director ignored the RAID warning when one drive failed, then a second failed) and the acting IT director was clueless. Management approached me to recover the data (knowing my background in Windows, Exchange, M$ mail, etc. prior to QA) but when I checked out the backups, I found that the acting IT director (the previous IT director left) had changed the backup several months prior, so that ONLY the directory structure was being backed up. No System State backup, no info store backup. No files backed up. They were toast. Also, ALL of the previous backup tapes had been recycled, including the ones at Iron Mountain, so they had NO backup. That situation lead to about a week's worth of no email, and likely hundreds of thousands worth of lost revenue. Fortunately